On Monday, November 24, North Glengarry Council awarded its winter maintenance contracts. Council also approved the purchase of a new compact tractor for maintaining sidewalks and municipal lots in Dalkeith and Glen Robertson. The contracts were awarded to Lalonde Equipment Rental and Power Lawn Care for a combined total of $21,219.19, while the tractor will cost the municipality approximately $53,000.

Director of Public Works Timothy Wright said Lalonde Equipment Rental ($12,019.09) and Power Lawn Care ($9,200) submitted the most competitive tenders. Their contracts will replace winter services previously provided by the municipality’s long-time contractor, who retired this past year. Wright noted that the former contractor had serviced many areas of Alexandria, Glen Robertson, and Dalkeith.

Wright acknowledged that using the new contractors in Dalkeith and Glen Robertson would result in higher costs because equipment would need to be floated in from Maxville or Alexandria. He estimated that the annual winter maintenance cost for the two towns would total more than $50,000, approximately $20,000 more than in previous years.

“The maintenance work involves clearing sidewalks—a more challenging task than regular snow maintenance due to the liability involved and the requirements of the Highway Traffic Act,” Wright said. “This would be better handled in-house, giving the municipality more control at a lower cost.”

Wright recommended that Council purchase the required equipment from Green Valley Kubota Ltd., with the tractor costing $38,834, a blower for $9,073, and a sander for $5,091, for a total of $52,998.86. He added that the department is in the final stages of recruiting an operator for the new equipment.

Wright said $50,000 from the surplus culvert repair budget would be reallocated to cover the purchase.

Deputy Mayor Carma Williams questioned how the tractor would be transported between Dalkeith and Glen Robertson during operations, noting that driving it back and forth “does not seem very efficient and could take a lot of time.”

Wright said the current plan is to drive the tractor between locations, though the department is reviewing options to float it using a municipality-owned trailer.

Council unanimously passed the motion with no further discussion.